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Home My WebLink About20181598_Att. 11 - Possible Lake Road development_20160222Attachment 11 Possible Lake Road development excites Havelock officials �� . � � ��'� �� _�� - � �� By Drew C. Wilson, Havelock News Posted Nov. 6, 2014 at ] 2:01 AM Updated Nov 6, 2014 at 4:28 PM Havelock officials expressed excitement over the possibility of a Weyerhaeuser commercial and residential development near the city on Lal<e Road. Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Development is working on a 1,700-acre multi-use project that, as now envisioned, would accommodate 400 acres of light industrial use with rail and road access, commercial and neighborhood sites, huge tracts of single family and multi-family, high, mediuin and low density housing, inedical facilities, a civic district, open spaces and coimnunity ainenity sites. "I think it's extremely exciting," City Manager Frank Bottorff said. "I think there's a lot of potential there. There's a couple of things that need to fall into place. Obviously, it's based on the ultimate approval and development of the bypass because it's at that interchange area with the potential of commercial, industrial and residential development, which I think would be a great addition to this community. "It has the potential of giving Havelock exactly what it needs, more development area, all sorts of opportunities for homeowners and business owners." The property is located outside of Havelock city limits, and whether the area would become part of the city is up to the developers based on current state annexation laws. "Nobody has requested annexation and frankly I don't really know if it's in the ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction)," Bottorff said. "I don't think so, currently, but the discussion we did have involved getting water and sewer to that area if they move forward with that potential project, so they are certainly investigating all options." He did say that if the city extended services to the development that he expected developers to request annexation. "We would certainly need to upgrade some of our infrastructure that's in the ground between now and that time, but frankly, we are already reviewing plans to upgrade and improve some of our infrastructure in the city anyway and then it would only take a minor expansion to go out to Lake Road," Bottorff said. He said the city's $12 million project that relocated the sewer discharge pipe from Slocum Creek to the Neuse River increases sewer capacity enough to handle the development. "Without the outfall project that went across Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, we couldn't have done something like this," Bottorff said. `But when you look at the potential with this project, the water and sewer plants themselves will be able to produce what we need to do to handle the capacity for this project, so it's not really the plants that need to be improved, it's really the infrastructure that's in the ground. "We have something we refer to as the westside solution which improves the water flow from the plant out of the city all the way out toward Tucker Creek. That gives us a backup system but also improves flow, so once that's in the ground, if approved and completed, that will give us a tremendous amount of flexibility to provide extra water and sewer out to Lake Road." There is no timeframe on when the project will be started or completed. "We are in the very early stages of planning this project," said Taylor powney, North Carolina operations manager for Weyerhaeuser Real Estate. The project is currently called Craven 38, which is the name the company gave the tract when it was acquired. "We have now invested hundreds of thousands of dollars just in our due diligence," Downey said. "We're already very committed. "The time frame of how fast we develop is based on how fast we can create demand for usage. Right now, that is still uncertain, but we are certain Havelock is poised for growth because of the F-35s coming in to Cherry Point and FRC East being the maintenance facility for F-35s." About a year ago, Weyerhaeuser transferred the 1,700 acres of the larger tract to be used for "higher and better use than growing pine trees." "We first started looking at part of this tract when we were contacted by the state Department of Commerce when they had an industry that wanted to come into Craven County," Downey said. "Some of their criteria were to have rail, good transportation corridors and the standard utilities: electric, water, sewer and gas." The company eventually decided on another location, he said. "But that caused us to take a closer look at Havelock and how it was changing, what the future will bring," Downey said. "When you find what the Department of Commerce is looking for, you're onto something and this tract makes it a wonderful site for light industrial use." Downey said he has been working with the city of Havelock and Craven County Economic Development Director Timothy Downs over the last few months. "Something we have found in recruiting business and industry is that when you get that opportunity to show off Eastern North Carolina and New Bern, they want the site pretty much ready to go," he said. "They are not in the business of speculating whether they can get what it takes to make the site ready for use. They'll just move on. "I know there is quite a bit of renewed effort to recruit new employers, industry, not only to Craven County, but to Havelock. But you have to listen to a lot of no's before you get one yes. We want to be ready." Downey said his company's engineers are doing boundary surveys, identifying environmentally sensitive areas, doing soil testing and attempting to come up with a high level plan for possible end uses and locations that work because of the transportation corridors. Existing rail and plans for the U.S. 70 Havelock bypass with access to Lake Road appear to make the site ideal, Downey said. Utilities expansion planned by the city and county are also significant to the development, he said. Sun Journal reporter Sue Book contributed to this story.